Pages

Monday, May 14, 2012

Third Contact - A London-set, Micro-budget Thriller

In 2010, Simon Horrocks assembled a group of actors and friends, bought a second-hand HD camcorder and started filming. Over the following year, they shot Third Contact, fitting around peoples’ day jobs, as and when locations became available. Equipment was borrowed or acquired from DIY stores. Sound was recorded by two friends, neither of whom had previous experience. Many of the roles were played by non-actors. In one scene, office staff were played by work colleagues on a short break meaning Horrocks had just 15 minutes to shoot the scene before they went back to their jobs.

But made a feature film they did, with Simon Horrocks himself wearing multiple hats in writing, directing, producing, operating the camera, editing, and dabbled with the sound design and co-writing the music. I'm always impressed by filmmakers who do not allow contraints to shackle their imaginations, but instead work around them through creative solutions carefully molded into the final film. You can check out the synopsis of the film below, and sneak a peek at the trailer after that.

Synopsis
Therapist David Wright struggles to overcome the pain of losing two people – hauntingly beautiful ex-wife, Teresa, and Rene, a long-term patient who recently took his own life. Goaded by depressed physicist, Karl, to snapping point, David contemplates his own self-destruction. But the troubled therapist finds new purpose when he meets Erika Maurer, the sister of Rene, who has come to set things in order and perhaps find some redemption of her own.

When David discovers a link between Rene and another patient, Helen – both had written a list of four dated memories – he rushes across town only to find an strange woman in Helen’s apartment and, in the morning, Helen’s body.

As Erika attempts to bring closure to her brother's death, she becomes haunted by a disturbing presence – a ringing phone and a shadowy stalker. Meanwhile, David becomes increasingly determined to discover who or what is behind the deaths of his two patients.

Every clue leads nowhere until he discovers a series of digits burned into the bottom of Rene’s urn; a code which promises to lead David to a mysterious figure at the head of a shady organization who believe death is just the beginning…

No comments:

About Me

I'm a Singapore based film buff and a keen supporter of Singapore films good and bad. I've been writing about Singapore Cinema and Singapore film-related activities since 2005. I am also a contributing writer at movieXclusive.com, TwitchFilm.net, and Sinema.sg.